Application Questions

• Adaptation


  When a species changes its physical or genetic term to survive within their environment
• Advantage of fox snake mimicking rattlesnake behavior

  Scares off predators
• Selective advantage for camouflage and mimicry

  • Camouflage allows blending in with environment to hide from prey or predators
  • Mimicry can scare away predators or lure prey
• Fly's adaptation and advantage

  • Fly is using mimicry to copy a bee, this helps it seem dangerous to predators / encourages predators to avoid it
  • Flying makes it hard for predators to catch or identify it
• Role of environment in peppered moth example

  Peppered moths depend on white/ peppered trees to hide in during the day, however during the English empire expansion these trees were less present in certain areas, resulting in the peppered moths becoming dark in color till the trees were replanted
• Adaptation of rattlesnakes re-absorbing digestive tract

  Physical features, and a bit of hibernation as the snake has learned how to save energy till they eat again
• Advantage of rattlesnakes re-absorbing digestive tract


  Allows the snake to save energy and use it when necessary
• Adaptation of xerophytes plants folding leaves

  Physical features, having the physical ability to close leaves and openings to save moisture
• Adaptations of eastern white pine

  • Thick bark
  • Less branches
  • Deep root system
• Type of adaptations of eastern white pine

  Physical adaptation
• Sources of genetic variation


  • Sexual reproduction gives genetic variation via giving offspring a set of genetics and allowing the offspring to express it within them differently
  • Mutation gives genetic variation via changing / having differences in "regular" genetic codes
• Challenges medical community facing with antibiotics

  Bacteria reproduce too quickly and have genetic mutations which allow them to become resistant to the antibiotic
• Natural selection


  • Slow speed of change
  • Environment impacts selection heavily
  • No human impact
  • Lots of diversity depending on environment
• Artificial selection


  • Fast speed of change
  • Little to no environmental help
  • Dependent on humans
  • No diversity
• One of the ancestors of the modern horse was Eohippus, a small animal with four toes


  Can occur through natural or artificial selection
• Since 1949, Warren Barheim's goal has been to develop inbred lines of plants with specific characteristics. For example, when crossed, the appropriate parents produce seeds for plants that produce seedless fruits, such as seedless watermelon.
• Deer mice with dark fur are widespread across North America. They can blend into dark soils and stay hidden from predators. Over a period of several thousand years the deer mouse populations inhibiting lighter coloured, sandy soils evolved a pale coat that helped them evade predators.
• Biotic factors that can exert selective pressure on a population

  • Natural disasters
  • Organism mutation
  • Unnatural occurrences (ex. Global warming)
• Fitness in natural selection

  How well individuals can attract a mate, resources available, genetics available
• One chipmunk has a litter with 8 babies and she has two litter per year. All the babies survive. This individual has high fitness.
• Wild blueberries


  Taste delicious but are much smaller than the blueberries from the grocery store
• Adaptations that allow polar bears to survive in the Arctic

  • Thick fur, big claws, sharp teeth (physical attributes, the ability to camouflage)
• Resistance of normal human intestinal flora to the antibiotic tetracycline

  Has risen from 2% in the 1950s to 80% in the 1990s due to natural selection allowing antibiotic resistant bacteria to survive and reproduce
• Patterns of evolution


  • Divergent evolution (2 or more species evolving from the same ancestor)
  • Convergent evolution (organisms with similar features due to environmental factors)
  • Coevolution (2 different species depend on each other to survive)
• Sexual selection


  The process of females choosing their mate based on features or procedures on a male
• Sexual selection


  • Female lions choosing who to mate with based on roaring ability and lion's mane